


Introduction to Flirtation and French Cuisine

by icrytoomuch



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Abed Nadir, Established Relationship, M/M, Secret Relationship, also annie is a lesbian in this even though thats not mentioned either, and troy is gay but thats not mentioned, its important to me that you know that, just my silly little headcanon, no beta we die like men, no fr I wrote this at like 1 am and now I'm dipping, set in season three, troy and abed are in love and you can't tell me otherwise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icrytoomuch/pseuds/icrytoomuch
Summary: Troy had a sinking feeling in his chest that was mixed with something he could only describe as anger. Why was this stranger so interested in Troy’s boyfriend? And how dare he be so objectively hot as well? Who did he think he was? Clive Owen? Britta shot him a confused look from the other side of the table and Troy quickly relaxed his face. This was fine, Troy didn’t care that this random man was openly flirting with Abed.Or: A waiter starts flirting with Abed, and Troy is Not Having It.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 17
Kudos: 132





	Introduction to Flirtation and French Cuisine

“Seems like just yesterday me and Abed dined and ditched here.” Troy looked at Abed, who was sitting right next to him, and grinned. He was glad they were sitting at a different kind of table than the one they had in their study room, this way Troy could properly sit next to his boyfriend, without a corner dividing them. Abed seemed to think the same, and although Troy hadn’t mentioned the way Abed had managed to push his chair closer to his own without anyone else noticing, he was having a hard time trying not to blush at the gesture.  
To be completely honest, Troy was pretty surprised that the rest of the study group hadn’t figured out that he and Abed were dating yet, it wasn’t like they were extremely subtle about it. Sometimes it felt like he had the words ‘In love with Abed Nadir’ written on his forehead in permanent marker. 

“Yeah,” Britta said, “and it also seems like just yesterday we were here to celebrate Pierce’s engagement. God, we need to stop going to this restaurant, how are we even affording this?” Everyone else at the table simultaneously turned their heads toward Pierce, who was reading the menu unsuspectingly. 

“What?” he asked when he noticed what was going on. “Did anyone mention airplane bathrooms? You know, I once ran into Eartha Kitt in an airplane-” His story was cut short by everyone else at the table groaning. 

“Anyways,” Annie said with a pointed look at Pierce, “we all just wanted to thank you for paying for our dinner. It’s not everyday we hold our first successful Save Garrett Rally and without you we wouldn’t have been able to properly celebrate it!” The mention of the Save Garrett Rally was greeted with excited murmur from the whole table, Abed even did the little fist pump he does when he’s happy about something. Troy did notice that Jeff, who was sitting at the other end of the table, hadn’t taken his eyes off his phone for one moment, seemingly not taking in a single word of what anyone was saying. Now that he came to think of it, Troy was pretty sure he hadn’t seen Jeff at the Save Garrett Rally at all. He made a mental note to ask Abed if he knew if Jeff got his invitation. 

“Shouldn’t Garrett be here?” Abed looked curiously at the rest of the group, who had all stopped talking. An uncomfortable silence fell over the table. 

“Oh,” Annie said, “uhm, no. He’s busy, busy with-” She thought about this for a second, but seemed to be unable to come up with a good way to finish her sentence. 

“Being saved!” Britta ended Annie’s sentence for her, who shot Britta a grateful look. Abed seemed to accept this answer without a second thought, so Troy decided to let it slide.  
It’s not like Troy really cared about Garrett’s whereabouts that much anyway, and as soon as he felt Abed get a hold of his hand underneath the table, he really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about if Garrett was at his own party or not. All that really mattered was that he and Abed were there, together. Though they hadn’t told the study group about their relationship, it wasn’t like they were planning on keeping it a secret forever. Troy had thought about telling them right on the first day of the new school year, but he had decided to test the waters first by announcing that he and Abed were moving in together. Judging by their reactions, Troy had decided that it would probably be better for him and Abed to wait a little bit longer. He wasn’t sure what moment he was waiting for exactly, just that he was waiting. 

“Have you been able to make a decision?” Troy hadn’t even seen the waiter approaching and quickly attempted to hide behind his menu. He didn’t feel like being recognized and getting thrown out, or worse, being forced to pay the bill he and Abed left behind when they ran away. Abed gave his hand a squeeze underneath the table before letting go, which relaxed Troy. Despite all their attempts at actually reading each other's minds ultimately failing, Troy knew Abed well enough to know that he had meant that this was a new waiter who wouldn’t recognise them.  
Troy lowered his menu and listened to his friends order fancy foods he’d never even heard of. Looking at the menu again, he really didn’t know what most of these words meant. He wondered if these were code names. Maybe they actually did serve a hamburger, but it was just being disguised with some fancy name. While Troy was quickly scanning his menu for any sign of a simple hamburger, he heard Abed order something that sounded absolutely ridiculous. 

“Excellent choice,” the waiter smiled, “and might I say that I really love the shirt you’re wearing? Inspector Spacetime, right?” Troy looked to his left and saw Abed nod, he was wearing the shirt Troy had gotten for him just a couple of days ago. Troy smiled as he remembered the way Abed reacted to getting the shirt, he had said cool like, 6 times. After that they had made out until Annie came home, which had obviously been awesome as well. Even if Troy had to hop into the shower immediately afterwards. 

“I’ve only ever met other Inspector Spacetime fans at conventions,” the waiter continued, “have you ever been to one of those?” Abed started telling the waiter about their plans to go to the next convention, which was happening next year. He mentioned Troy multiple times, but the waiter didn’t seem to care much about Troy also liking the show, Abed had his full attention.  
Troy had a sinking feeling in his chest that was mixed with something he could only describe as anger. Why was this stranger so interested in Troy’s boyfriend? And how dare he be so objectively hot as well? Who did he think he was? Clive Owen? Britta shot him a confused look from the other side of the table and Troy quickly relaxed his face. This was fine, Troy didn’t care that this random man was openly flirting with Abed. After a while of painfully obvious flirting, the waiter finally turned his attention to Troy and quickly took his order. It was only when the waiter had left, that Troy realized how deadly quiet the rest of the group had gotten. 

“Abed,” Jeff started slowly, apparently finally having put his phone down to watch what was happening, “you know that man was flirting with you right?” Everyone looked at Abed with mixed expressions on their faces. Troy tried to mimic their expressions as best as he could, he couldn’t let everyone see the jealousy he was so obviously feeling. 

“Oh good,” Abed said, “you guys noticed it too, I thought I might have been picking up on signals that weren’t there.” 

“Uhm, Abed,” Shirley started in a high tone, Troy had come to think of this tone as Shirley’s ‘Come To Jesus’ voice. “You weren’t thinking of accepting that man’s advances, were you?” She tried to look sweet, but her eyes said otherwise. 

“No.” Abed said simply, and although Troy already knew that Abed would never cheat on him, a wave of relief washed over him. It seemed like Shirley had felt a similar relief, but for completely different reasons.

“Oh thank the lord,” Shirley sighed, looking upwards, “I was worried for your soul, you know-” But before she could finish her sentence, she was cut off by Britta. 

“Shirley, you’re being homophobic, gay people are just as normal as us. I would know, I had a bunch of gay friends when I lived in New York.” 

“I’m not being homophobic Britta, I’m just following the word of our lord and savious Jesus Christ..”

“Okay Shirley, where in the bible does it say that being gay is wrong exactly?” The group immediately erupted into an argument where everyone’s sentences overlapped and Troy couldn’t understand a thing anyone was saying. He looked over at Abed, who seemed to also be participating in the argument, although Troy thought he heard him say something about Blorgons.  
After a while, the argument died down, Shirley seemed to be out of arguments and genuinely looked like she was in thought. It wasn’t much, but enough to make Troy’s heart leap with hope. Britta looked over at Abed with a look of victory in her eyes. 

“Abed,” she said firmly, “I want you to know that we don’t care if you’re gay.” 

“I’m not gay though.” Abed said, looking a bit confused. 

“Well, yes, I know that.” Britta didn’t seem like she knew what to say next. “I just mean that, if you were gay, which you’re not, but if you were, that would be okay.” 

“I know it’s okay.” Abed said, his head cocked to the side.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to continue having this awkward conversation much longer, as their food began to arrive. Troy was very relieved to see a different waiter coming to put their plates on the table. If he was completely honest with himself, Troy had already forgotten what he had ordered. He didn’t really know how he was even supposed to know anyways, half of the words on the menu had been French. He had just chosen something that sounded good and hoped for the best. Lucky for him, he hadn’t been wrong. The dish both sounded and tasted delicious, Troy was very relieved he hadn’t accidentally ordered snails or something like that. The topic of being gay hadn’t come up anymore and the dinner was going great, Troy had even managed to completely put the flirty waiter out of his mind.  
Abed’s fancy sounding order had just turned out to be buttered noodles. Troy didn’t know how Abed had managed to say the right things in order to get what he wanted, but he was impressed. Despite the success of the evening, he kind of wished they were at home though. Troy could have made buttered noodles for the both of them, they could have gone into their blanket fort and watched a romcom. (Ever since they had started dating, they had been watching more and more romcoms, Abed insisted on doing homages to them every chance they got. Troy absolutely adored it.) They could have had a glass of special drink in order to celebrate the successful Save Garrett Rally, and that would have been enough for Troy. Just him and Abed, that had always been all he’d wanted. All he’d needed.

By the time everyone had finished eating, Troy was completely ready to go home. He’d had a couple of glasses of no-no juice and now all he really wanted was to cuddle with Abed in the bottom bunk of their bunkbeds.  
Pierce asked someone for the check and the flirty waiter returned. Troy’s satisfied feeling vanished instantly, he had completely forgotten about him. Still, everything was going fine, the waiter came over with the check and didn’t even glance at Troy and Abed’s side of the table while Pierce was paying. Troy still grabbed Abed’s hand underneath the table, he wanted to have the reassurance of Abed’s hand in his. 

The waiter finally turned to Abed. “Hey, I have a pretty cool limited edition Inspector Spacetime DVD set with exclusive commentary at home. My shift is almost over, would you like to watch it?” Troy’s grip on Abed’s hand got so tight he was surprised Abed didn’t flinch. The rest of the study group looked intensely at Abed, waiting for him to react. 

“No thanks,” Abed said, “I have a boyfriend.” This time Troy didn’t have to try to make his facial expression match the others’, he looked just as shocked as the rest of the study group did. He let go of Abed’s hand, Abed frowned at this, but didn’t say anything. Troy was pretty sure he heard Pierce say “Gay!” before being shoved by someone, presumably Jeff. The waiter apologized profusely and went red before quickly walking off, leaving the seven people at the table alone in an awkward silence. 

“Abed, you lied to that guy, right? To get him off your back?” Annie was the first person to bravely break the silence. Everybody else at the table immediately came to the conclusion that this was the only possible explanation and began to relax. 

“No.” Abed said, “That would mean lying to you guys too, friends don’t lie to each other.” This resulted in a whole new wave of tension and confusion, if Abed hadn’t lied to that waiter, that would mean he actually did have a boyfriend no one knew about. 

“But Abed,” Britta said, “didn’t you say you weren’t gay earlier tonight?” A murmur of agreement sounded from the rest of the study group.

“I’m not gay, I’m bisexual.” Abed explained, “That’s not lying to you guys either, there’s a difference.” At this, the whole group burst out into questions, everyone seemed to get more and more confused with every answer Abed gave. Slowly but surely, everyone seemed to come to the same realisation though: Troy hadn’t said a single word. It took Troy just a second too long to realize this as well. 

“Whaaat?” Troy exclaimed, trying his very best to seem just as surprised, “This is new information to me!” He realized this probably didn’t sound too convincing, but it was better than saying nothing. 

“No it’s not.” Abed looked confused, he was clearly not understanding why Troy had said this. It took a few seconds of the study group gaping at them for Abed to realize his mistake. “Oh,” he said, “social cue?” 

“Yeah buddy, that’s okay.” Troy patted Abed on the arm, now that the cat was out of the bag anyways, the first thing he really wanted to do was make sure that Abed didn’t feel like he did anything wrong. It wasn’t like they weren’t going to find out eventually. This way they wouldn’t be able to pull a Monica and Chandler though, waiting for people to find out about them via various goofy scenarios. 

“Troy!” Annie exclaimed in a high pitched voice, “You know who Abed is dating? Why didn’t you tell me?” Troy abruptly stopped trying to reassure Abed. What did that mean? Surely they had enough information to piece this one together. Troy looked over at Jeff, expecting him to help Annie understand the situation, but nothing happened. Jeff looked just as curious as Annie did. How did the group jump to the conclusion that he and Abed were dating so quickly when they were only moving in together, but seemed to be completely oblivious now that all the information was all laid out in front of them? 

Troy looked to his left and saw Abed already looking at him, one eyebrow raised. He seemed to be waiting for Troy to do something, not wanting to say something he wasn’t supposed to again. It only took Troy a split second to make a decision, even though it felt like forever. He took a breath, grabbed Abed’s face and kissed him. 

It was a little rougher than he had intended and the fact that Abed hadn’t seen this coming didn’t make it any more gentle, but the safety and familiarity or kissing his boyfriend more than made up for any awkwardness he might’ve been feeling. Even the initial anxiety about kissing Abed in front of their other friends had seeped away. Troy was sure they would be able to somehow convince Shirley that they weren’t going to hell any more than they already were, and Pierce’s speech to Britta when she started hanging out with Paige was surprisingly supportive. Britta would pretend not to care in order to show her support, while Jeff actually wouldn’t care that much. Annie would be alright with it, Troy was positive of this. Their Annie would never be against anything that made them happy, and besides, she’d been making them watch But I’m a Cheerleader a suspicious amount of times. 

Everything would be alright. Troy felt on top of the world, kissing Abed in this restaurant with their weird French food and their weirdly flirtatious waiters. Everything around them seemed to melt away, it was just him and Abed, and that was all Troy had ever needed.

**Author's Note:**

> hey lol, I wrote this because my ADHD brain is hyperfixated on community and no one I know likes it, so this is my outlet. also i saw someone on Twitter say there werent enough trobed fanfics so here i am i guess. I've never written any type of fanfiction before and English isn't my first language, also it's the middle of the fucking night so I just hope this is coherent lmao. anyways thanks for reading the stuff my brain produced after only thinking about this goddamn show for ages have a nice day


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